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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Fwd: Re: [soilandhealth] Re: Cuba.... was potting soil/organic fertilizers

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  • From: Toby Hemenway <toby@patternliteracy.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Fwd: Re: [soilandhealth] Re: Cuba.... was potting soil/organic fertilizers
  • Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2011 13:58:32 -0600


On 8/16/2011 4:24 AM, m_astera wrote:
> There is a myth, a very popular one, that all one needs is "more organic
> matter" to turn any piece of ground into a fertile paradise.
>
> Among others promoting the myth are the Rodale organic crowd,
> Biodynamics, Permaculture, Fukuoka's fans, and Ingham's SoilFoodWeb. The
> soilfoodweb organization has probably taken it to its furthest extreme,

It's not that it's a myth, because it's often true. It's just not the whole
story. But it tends to be true so often because so many of our soils have
been depleted of their organic matter. Tillage, chemical fertilizers,
addition of urine or other high-nitrogen materials to soils, and many
practices of agriculture deplete soil organic matter. So in many, many cases,
the first and best thing you can do to restore soil health is to add organic
matter. I know there's been a certain backlash to this because it's been
over-simplified, but in many cases the results of adding OM are more dramatic
than anything else you can do. By now, OM has become the limiting element for
proper soil function in most of the world's soils.

If you don't have SOM to hold onto minerals like Ca and Mg, adding them is
just a short term solution, even in the form of rock dusts. Rock dusts are
more persistent than soluble chemical fertilizers, but both are just ways of
delivering minerals to plants (or microbes). Rock dusts need microbes to
break them down and keep them in the soil. No SOM, no microbes, no mineral
retention. Some clays are good at holding minerals, but SOM is far better.

So in most cases, adding OM is the first and most effective step, and
refinements like rock dusts come later.

Toby
http://patternliteracy.com






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